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SWIFT opens office in Brazil

Local presence will promote SWIFT in Latin America

Published on 22 February 2007

David Pryce, Director, Commercial Channels and Developing Markets, SWIFT

Brazil, the largest and most populous country in Latin America, is also the fifth largest in the world in area and population. One of the key financial centres of the continent, Brazil’s IT sector is considered among the most advanced in the world. To expand activities in this booming country, SWIFT recently opened an office in São Paulo, home to 10 million people.

On 29 January, 70 guests attended the opening of the new SWIFT Brazil office in São Paulo. Guests included key clients and prospects, partners, market infrastructures, exchanges, representatives from the Central Bank, former SWIFT Board Members Afonso Netto of Brazil and Alejandro Alarcon of Chile, as well as the media.

“SWIFT’s strategy emphasises the importance of establishing offices in key emerging markets, including Brazil,” says David Pryce, Director, Commercial Channels and Developing Markets at SWIFT. “I am delighted that we have such a strong team of business experts in São Paulo who will work closely with the User Group and our Business Partners on key projects in Brazil and Mexico.”

SWIFT2010 Strategy aims to capture the potential of emerging markets

With its new SWIFT2010 Strategy, SWIFT is poised to capture the opportunity offered by the largest emerging markets – Brazil, Russia, India and China, otherwise known as BRICs. Today, the largest emerging markets represent less than two percent of SWIFT message traffic, though it is estimated that their total GDP will be half of that of the G-6 by 2025. Capturing this substantial opportunity requires increasing SWIFT’s local presence to better leverage its business partners and develop the national member groups. This will also increase penetration in their financial institutions and, by establishing good relations with central banks and regulators, help capture regional and local market infrastructures.

Local presence will attract users to SWIFT

“If SWIFT wants to grow, it must be locally present in Latin America’s largest and most sophisticated market,” remarks Michel Corthouts, Regional Director, Latin America. “High inflation in the ‘90s drove the Brazilian market to quickly embrace technology,” he explains. “As a result, its financial market has been operating on a par with Europe and the United States. Since Brazil is now opening up to global markets, having a SWIFT presence locally will help engage the dialogue towards globalisation and steer more users toward SWIFT.”

The timing of the new office is propitious

Nelson Pereira, Head of SWIFT’s São Paulo office, commented, “The feedback from our guests is that the timing of this opening could not be better. There are many opportunities for us to pursue in this country."

According to an article published in Valor, the local financial newspaper, SWIFT has close to 90 clients in Brazil, with Banco do Brazil as the largest. The paper writes: “There is no data available on the market share in local electronic messages, but it is known to be very small, due mainly to systems developed by the banks themselves and by the Brazilian central bank.” “For SWIFT,” notes Pereira, “this means we have to function as a safety net and facilitate international transactions due to the fact that we represent global financial standards.”

Francis Vanbever, SWIFT CFO

CFO Francis Vanbever agrees that the change in Brazil’s economic profile over the past decade, from a strongly industrialised base to a service and technology-oriented one, means there will be a boom in many other sectors as well, particularly in financial services. “The opening of the SWIFT Brazil office is very timely,” he observes. “I am impressed by the number of opportunities we have in the region, and I am convinced that we have the right team in place.”

Latin America is a key market for SWIFT

Lambert Timmermans, Commercial Manager for Latin America, remarks, “Brazil, Mexico and the rest of Latin America are key markets for SWIFT. That is why we are opening an office in Brazil. Recent waves of globalisation and economic growth throughout the continent are resulting in the ever-growing demand for interoperability, universal standards, and cost effective and flexible solutions. The new SWIFTNet platform and solutions perfectly address these requirements.”